Setting foot in a restaurant for his first time as president, Joe Biden made a Cinco de Mayo taco and enchilada run to highlight his administration’s $28.6 billion program to help eateries that lost business because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The president went to Taqueria Las Gemelas near Union Market in Northeast D.C. on Wednesday and ordered four tacos and two quesadillas. The restaurant, owned in part by Mexican immigrants Yesenia Neri Diaz and Rogelio Martinez, was a beneficiary of a pilot version of the restaurant relief program. It went from 55 employees to seven during the pandemic, though it was able to rehire some workers through the Paycheck Protection Program that predates the Biden administration.
“The restaurant industry was so badly hurt nationwide," Biden said Wednesday, the anniversary of Mexico's victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862.
The taqueria’s co-owner Josh Phillips hails from Biden’s home state of Delaware and went to high school a couple of blocks from Biden’s house in Wilmington.
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Phillips said cried a little bit when Biden let them know Las Gemelas was the first restaurant in the country to be approved for the Revitalization Fund. He said the money is meaningful and tremendous for them to stay open. It means they can increase staff pay and pay off bills.
The White House said that 186,200 restaurants, bars and other eligible businesses had applied for the program over its first two days of accepting applications. More than half of the applicants are owned by women, veterans or people from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. The aid for eateries was part of the Biden administration's broader $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.
The coronavirus outbreak was especially brutal for restaurants. America lost nearly 2,700 dining establishments through last summer, according to the Labor Department. About 1.8 million food service jobs also have been lost, though the sector has been gradually returning jobs since last May.
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Phillips said this year's Cinco de Mayo does not compare to last year’s, which was one of their most challenging times.
In comparison, "This couldn’t have been a more pleasant morning," he said.
Researchers at the not-for-profit Opportunity Insights found that consumer spending at hotels and restaurants plunged more than 60% in April 2020 compared with the start of that year. Spending is still down 4.5% compared with before the pandemic.
Under the Biden relief program, which started accepting applications on Monday, restaurants and bars can qualify for grants equal to their pandemic-related revenue losses, with a cap of $10 million per business and $5 million per location.
The program has set aside $9.5 billion for the smallest restaurants and bars, and a third of the applications were filed by businesses with annual pre-pandemic revenues of less than $500,000. For the program's first 21 days, applications from women, veterans and socially and economically disadvantaged people will have priority for being reviewed and funded.
Business owners seeking to apply for the program can receive more information at sba.gov/restaurants.
